Contents

Summary

Arthur takes on Brain at a checkers competition, and everyone rallies behind him — until he lets out a "yowl" that alienates his fans.

Plot

There is a checkers contest, and everyone wants Arthur to challenge the Brain, so he does. They have a pep rally for the contest, and only George wants the Brain to win. Muffy starts a web site for "the benefit of all the average kids". In the first pep rally, Brain wins. Francine makes Arthur attend a post-game pep rally, giving him instructions on how to win back his fans. However, Arthur soon becomes frustrated in the middle of his pep talk and screams at the crowd.

Back at home, Arthur is lying on the living room couch when he gets a call from Buster to check out Muffy's website. He finds out that Muffy has posted a video of his scream.

The next day, Muffy and Francine are passing out flyers. When Arthur attempts to grab the flyers away from Francine, she pulls all but one of them away, saying, "Don't worry, Mr. Hyde. It's not for you." Arthur looks at the flyer in his hands; much to his surprise and puzzlement, it's shown to support Brain: "Huh? 'A is for Angry, B is for Brains. Pep rally for Brain before the game'?" Arthur points out Francine and Muffy said Brain was conceited, and Muffy replies, "Wow — angry and mean. I think you need to chill out." When Arthur asks why they're doing this, wondering if it was because he asked them to leave him alone yesterday, Francine replies with "If you call what you did 'asking'. Brain may be conceited, but at least he's nice." Muffy then adds that they "just care about the integrity of checkers". Arthur finally crumples a flyer while screaming, causing the other students to run off. Binky then congratulates him, stating "It took me years to get scary. You did it overnight."

At the next play-off match, everyone but Buster supports Brain. Finally, Arthur forfeits when the match starts.

Back home, Jane tells Arthur that people can get a little crazy sometimes when it comes to competition, and not to take it to heart. Arthur admits that maybe he deserved it: "It's not like I tried all that hard to stop them from putting down Brain when they were on my side." Jane remarks, "Well, I don't think you should quit something you love, just because of what other people think." Arthur says that he didn't love it; it's checkers: "I just wanted it to be fun. It's not fun anymore."

The doorbell rings, and Arthur answers it to find Francine, who asks if he wants to go to the Inter-Scholastic for them. Seeing Arthur's puzzlement, she explains that Brain forfeited as well because of the pep rallies. Francine apologizes to Arthur for how she and Muffy got carried away with their campaign: "I guess it's just cause you hurt her feelings. We were kind of forgetting that maybe we'd hurt yours... and Brain's." Arthur accepts her apology, but declines the offer to attend the Inter-Scholastic.

Muffy is chosen for the Inter-Scholastic, but is disqualified because, as Mr. Ratburn puts it, "Checkers is a quiet game" and Muffy's supporters are too loud. Muffy in turn gives an interview blaming the judges for being uptight.

The episode finishes with Arthur and Brain playing checkers inside of Arthur's house.